Sharon Creecy-Green awakened to the tornado alert on her phone on the morning Tropical Storm Arthur impacted St. Charles Parish – before she saw a familiar sight outside her Destrehan home.
“The water came up so fast,” Green said. “Anytime there’s a heavy rain, it comes up really fast.”
Approximately seven to nine inches of rain fell upon St. Charles Parish during the storm. St. Charles Parish Public Information Officer Francesca Blanchard said 178 residents reported damage to their homes as a result of Arthur and noted that damage was scattered relatively evenly throughout the parish.
Creecy-Green said the rising water reached the garage of her home within about an hour of noticing the water accumulated in the street, and that thankfully the damage was limited to the garage – the structure itself was not significantly damaged, but boxes and belongings were soaked.
For many parish natives like Green, a flood event isn’t a new occurrence, but it’s still a source of anxiety. Green lives with her brother, longtime St. Charles Parish educator Benjamin Parquet.
“My brother is up in age and to start over would be … you don’t want to really think about it,” Creecy-Green said. “He and I both kept an eye on it, watching it and watching it. I finally told him, go lay down and I’ll stay up. It’s a nervous feeling. Our neighbor was nervous as well. Another had water into a room.”
For Tom Alford of St. Rose, the damage was more extensive. His home was flooded for the second time in three years due to Arthur.
“I just finished putting all of my house back together last year,” Alford said. “Now, I’ve got to tear it all out again for the same thing.”
Like Green, Alford awoke to the tornado alerts.
“I look outside and water’s getting in my vehicle,” Alford said. “I had to put it across the street or that would have been flooded too.”
Alford expressed frustration as he believes more needs to be done to prevent this kind of flooding from happening.
“One lady made a comment that it’s been this way for 47 years. 47 years,” Alford said. “(Hurricane Francine) came through two years ago, and the same thing happened. Nothing’s been done since then. A couple of days after Arthur, it rained again – the whole street was almost flooded on both sides. The water was all the way to River Road.
“They’ve got a drainage project going on for Ormond and they’ve got another one for Des Allemands. But they’re not taking care of us. There’s a $3 million boat launch for Des Allemands, but we’ve got people flooding.”
Alford’s neighbor Adam Songy said that his commercial building on St. Rose Ave. has flooded four times since he purchased it in 2023.
“After the second time, we started putting everything up on the second floor,” Songy said. “We didn’t have too much damage this time, but it’s starting to become a pain. Every time it rains, you have to have a bit of fear, and that’s exhausting.”
After Songy raised the issue on social media, he noted St. Charles Parish President Matt Jewell went to the area to discuss those concerns.
“As far as improper slopes and some of the pipes underneath the railroad track being clogged, it sounds like those things are going to be addressed ASAP,” Songy said. “I hope that’s the case. I know there are other places in the parish dealing with this as well … I’d just like to see a solution. We’re at too high an elevation and we pay entirely too much in property taxes to continue to deal with this. This is where I want to be, but at the rate it’s going, it’s looking like we can’t unless something changes.”
